Cygnett Micro: Review

Today we are going to look at the Cygnett Micro rechargeable speaker. The Micro is a portable stereo speaker unit, the type you plug into your iPod, or mobile phone, and annoy people on the bus with. Joking apart, if you are traveling about and you like to hear your music while moving about, untethered by headphone cables, these speakers can come in useful. As ever, there is a vast sea of choice in this market, so lets shine a searchlight on the Cygnett Micro, and find out if it clings to the life raft of inadequacy, or greases it’s self up, and swims the channel of competence.

The Cygnett Micro measures a pocketable 105mm x 20mm x 46mm (lxdxh), and has two speakers set about 60mm apart. The Mini has a Lithium-Ion battery that the manufacturer claims will last three hours of playback after a full charge. Charging is accomplished via a USB cable that is roughly 750mm long. Unfortunately, no audio is transferred down this cable, it is simply for charging. For audio you use the supplied 3.5mm to 3.5mm jack cable at a compact 330mm long. I do wish however that it was slightly longer. If you wanted to connect this to your computer, you won’t have much of a choice as to where the speakers go. I would also liked to have been able to connect the speakers through the USB cable. This way, I could charge the unit while listening to music, through one cable, and use the 3.5mm jack cable while out and about.

So once you plug it in, what does it sound like? Well, once plugged in, it’s worth noting that it does not have a volume control on it, so you could be in danger of giving yourself a fright if you have left the volume up.  The good news is that the audio quality is OK. Don’t get me wrong, something of this size and stature is never going to be the audio marvel of the decade, but if your laptops speakers are a bit weedy, or the speaker that came with your MP3 player is tinny this does make an acceptable upgrade. As you might imagine, the high end is fine if course, with good reproduction, and the mid-range too has a reasonable output. The achilles heal of all these products though is the bass. There is little room for the bass to resonate in speakers of this size, and although it makes a better go of it than my laptop speakers, it still could do with a bit extra in this department.

This  then gives you a good idea of where these speakers are aimed. Basically, a slight improvement to stock speakers and not as good as the expensive ones. It’s a space that Cygnett are very good at filling. The presentation case looks very iPod-ish, and the price is affordable. At £20.00, it is certainly in the price range of the average teenage bopper. The units stye is good, and made from a solid plastic, so it should certainly survive life in a rucksack. All in all, a good little set of speakers for those on a budget, but don’t expect too much.

The Gaj-It Verdict:

Design: 8/10
Usability: 7/10
Features: 6/10
Value: 8/10

We Say:

Fine if one is on a budget, and wants a bit portable music, but don’t expect miracles.